Fantasy and Reality

My latest television craze is Supernatural. It revolves around two ghost-hunting brothers whose mother was killed by an unknown preternatural entity, and whose father therefore was driven to find said entity and in the process, trained his sons to kick non-corporeal booty. I watched the first episode and was hooked within the first ten minutes. The second episode I watched revealed to me why - half the producers were from The X-Files! I am a total geek when it comes to The X-Files. I used to watch it religiously. Up until last year, I could recite every single episode title from seasons one through nine, but all sorts of useless English grammar and linguistics vied for space in my puny brain and thus, the titles had to be sacrificed. However, that does not mean I have lost all knowledge of my beloved conspiracy-busting FBI agents. I still know that Scully's middle name is Katherine, that Mulder's birthday is October thirteenth and that Mulder usually did the driving because he was scared Scully's little feet couldn't reach the pedals. You know, a lot of people think television will rot your brain, but I beg to differ. A good, say, twenty to thirty percent of my vocabulary originated from something I saw on TV. I even wrote an article for the MUIC Tabloid, back during my undergrad days, about how television-viewing can be a good supplement to language learning. It's all about moderation and selectivity, two words that definitely apply to many aspects of life. Anyhow, I'm getting off my soapbox to plug Supernatural a bit more. I like what I've seen so far. It has all the elements that I look for in a show - creepy atmosphere (courtesy of every genre drama location scout's favorite city, Vancouver), cheesy stereotypes that just happen to work (Kickass, snarky, maniacally pledged-to-the-cause character? Check. Kickass, reluctant, pulled-in-by-major-traged y character? Check. People way too attractive to be related/working together in real life? Check and double check) and of course, stuff you'd never encounter in real life. Listen, everyday, I'm faced with dodging Bangkok traffic and moody commuters, I study a subject I really have no idea about, and to my friends, I'm either a) a jinx, b) a bore, c) a safety hazard or d) all of the above; when I come home and turn on the idiot box, I don't want to see reality. I get a huge daily dose of it jammed straight into my vein. Take me out of my life, please. Instead of fighting people to get on the BTS, I want to see two cute guys fighting off a wendigo. Instead of trying to figure what the heck a morpheme is, let me watch a moronic minor character get huffy and storm off to be eaten by the monster of the week. Instead of trying to figure out why my friend's bowling score goes up exponentially when I'm not around, let me concentrate on yet another smalltown sheriff who doesn't believe the out-of-town ghostbusters. Fantasy is good for the soul. It helps us deal with the all too real process of living.

Final thought: "All I know is television does not make a previously sane man go out and kill five people, thinking they're all the same guy. Not even 'Must-See TV' could do that to you." Mulder, The X-Files